About
Gerald A. Honigman
Gerald A. Honigman is a Florida
educator who has done extensive doctoral studies in Middle
Eastern Affairs, created and conducted counter-Arab propaganda
programs for college youth, lectured on numerous campuses and
other platforms, and has publicly debated many Arab spokesmen.
He is the author of
The Quest for Justice in the Middle East. His articles and op-eds have been published in dozens of
newspapers, magazines, academic journals and websites all around
the world.
Link
Recently, tragedy struck Samoa in the South Pacific Ocean in the form of
a tidal wave triggered by an earthquake. American Samoa is an
unincorporated state southeast of independent Samoa.
As I
heard the reports come in, I couldn't help but ponder the irony here.
We
just let those words roll right off of our tongues...American
Samoa.
In
case you didn't know, the various Polynesian peoples living on those
islands and others as well didn't ask to be invaded, converted,
conquered, given offers they couldn't refuse, and so forth. Yet
the French, Germans, and Americans wound up dividing the islands among
themselves.
The
U.S. Navy secured Deeds of Cession of Tutuila in 1900 and of
Manuʻa
in 1904. The last sovereign ruler of
Manuʻa
was forced to sign that Deed of Cession following a series of U.S. Naval
trials, known as the "Trial of the Ipu", in Pago Pago,
Taʻu,
and aboard a U.S. Navy warship.
Samoa
is many thousands of miles away from America, Americans have no natural
nor historical ties to the land, but--in the name of American national
interests--eastern Samoa became American territory as a result of the
Tripartite Convention dividing the archipelago between Germany and
America in 1899.
Okay...now let's consider Samaria.
Together with Judea, they both make up what is now called the "West
Bank." The latter name did not exist until the early 20th century. After
the defeat of the over four century old Ottoman Turkish Empire in World
War I, the Brits and the French divided up much of the Middle Eastern
and North African spoils.
In
1922, to reward Hashemite Arab allies in the Arabian Peninsula (remember
the movie, Lawrence of Arabia?)--who were in the process of
gradually getting their own derrieres kicked out of there by the rival
clan of Ibn Saud (hence, Saudi Arabia today)--the Brits chopped
of almost 80% of the original Mandate of Palestine that they had
received on April 25, 1920 and handed it over to the Hashemites.
Since
all of this land reward consisted of Palestine across (east of)
the Jordan River, the East Bank became known as the Emirate of Transjordan.
The West Bank--formerly known for thousands of years as Judea and
Samaria--was on the opposite shore.
When
Transjordan illegally seized the non-apportioned territory of the
Mandate on the "West Bank" in 1948 (where Jews, Arabs, and others were
legally allowed to live) when it joined other attacking Arab states to
try to nip a reborn, miniscule Israel in the bud, it further emphasized
this designation to distinguish its newly conquered territory from the
original 1922 East Bank Emirate.
Jews
had lived and owned property in Judea and Samaria for--literally--thousands
of years. Massacres by Arabs in the 1920s and 1930s took their tolls as
did previous ups and downs of Jewish history under the various imperial
conquerors which succeeded each other since the fall of Judea to Rome
some two thousand years earlier. As soon as Transjordan grabbed Judea
and Samaria, it declared that no Jew could live there. Places such as
Hebron, Beth-El, Shilo, Bethlehem, Shechem, and so forth are known to
the world today because of their introductions via the Hebrew Bible.
Most Arabs came into the area after their own imperial conquests in the
7th century C.E. They ruled, first out of Damascus and then Bagdad, for
a few centuries and were then conquered themselves by the next imperial
successors.
After
1949, when Transjordan grabbed the "West Bank," while no Jews were
allowed in the territories, numerous Arabs poured into them from all
over. To further its Judenrein policies, Transjordan--now holding
both banks of the River-- renamed itself Jordan and proceeded to destroy
dozens of synagogues, cemeteries, and so forth in adjacent Jerusalem and
elsewhere dating back numerous centuries and showing the Jews continuous
connections to the land.
Alright, now consider this next...
The
current American Administration and the perpetually anti-Israel State
Department insist that no Jews should be allowed to live in Judea or
Samaria. Furthermore, they also demand that Israel abandon what UNSC
Resolution 242 promised it after the June '67 War--secure, defensible
borders instead of the previous '49 armistice lines which made it
virtually invisible on a world map.
America can grab lands thousands of miles away in the name of its own
interests, but no Jew may live in Judea or Samaria. And do you really
think President Noriega was toppled in Panama, thousands of miles away,
because he was a drug dealer?
Nothing wrong with this picture?
I
have a deal...and I hope Israeli leaders are listening closely.
Forget fair...
Only
Jews worry about this sort of thing when they're fighting for their very
lives against enemies who won't grant them any peace at all except the
peace of the grave--regardless of the size Israel will shrink
itself to. And the rest of the world couldn't care less...
So,
let's think about what's needed for survival for a change...
If
Judea must be Judenrein, then every Arab in Israel must be sent
packing. Israel must be made Arabrein. Half of the latter are just
waiting-- like vultures-- to pounce anyway... given the right moment.
It is
truly time for equal treatment here. What's good for Jews must be good
for Arabs.
Trading hundreds of live Arab butchers and wanabees for the remains of a
few Jews, for example, is another pathetic example of the inequality
Israel seems to just accept. Execute--quickly--the former, and
you won't have as many to trade (only to have them return to kill more
Jews) after you've been repeatedly blackmailed. Think Hamas and the
current tragic Gilad Shalit fiasco.
Forget land for peace. This has been nothing but a bad joke, part
of the Arabs' well-known and openly-admitted destruction-in-phases
plan since 1967. Look at a map of the region. Is the problem a lack of
Arab land in compared to Israel?
Peace for peace...Period.
No
recognition of a Jewish State of Israel? Then the hell with
recognizing a 22nd state for Arabs--and their second , not
first, one in "Palestine...Period.
Unlike Samoa to America, Judea and Samaria are literally a stone's throw
away from Israel's heartland, are an integral part of Jewish history,
and are positioned to allow a hostile army entering from the east to cut
Israel in half. The Arabs have indeed already tried that one on for
size.
Finally, this can't be repeated too often...
Look
at what came after Israel's total withdrawal from Gaza years ago to see
what a total Israeli withdrawal from the "West Bank" will mean for
Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Ben-Gurion Airport, the Knesset, and so
forth once Israel has been forced back to the '49 armistice lines--not
borders--imposed on it by the United Nations andwhich made
it a mere 9-15 miles wide at its strategic waist, where most of its
population, industry, and so forth are located.
And
the next time you hear voices out of Washington insisting upon a
Jew-free Judea and Samaria, please give a long, hard thought to American
Samoa.
